NHS cuts and public sector pay: will there be a ‘winter of discontent’?

In the weeks that followed their disastrous election result, a delegation of Tory MPs marched to Downing Street with a clear message for the prime minister and her team. After years of austerity, voters’ patience was running out, and some positivity was needed.
The MPs went away from the meeting convinced they had secured an end to the public sector pay cap that would mark a loosening of spending cuts that they could use to show their constituents that the government was listening.
Yet while Theresa May and her chancellor, Philip Hammond, are preparing to make a gesture to selected public... read more

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